


Rekindled Sparks

by ShadeOps21



Series: Interservice Love [2]
Category: Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six (Video Games)
Genre: F/F, Former Lovers - Freeform, Past Relationships, Reconciliation, Rivals back to friends?, a Nomadic Romantics Sidestory, post Kingslayer, pre Greenstone, stress relief hookups
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-30
Updated: 2020-06-30
Packaged: 2020-11-08 06:08:21
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,316
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20830649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShadeOps21/pseuds/ShadeOps21
Summary: Meghan Castellano, a US Navy SEAL and intelligence officer assigned to RAINBOW, and Kim Hernandez, former SEAL assaulter and current Ghost Recon stealth specialist, cross paths during a joint training session between the two agencies.While they didn’t part ways on the most friendly of terms, the two realise they must put aside their animosity and differences to cooperate and ensure they don’t end up killing each other before RAINBOW returns back home.But the shadow of a spark between them threatens to reignite something far more volatile...





	1. Chapter 1

_Present Day  
Fort Bragg, North Carolina_

Meghan Castellano had to blink a few times as she tried to gather her thoughts, her mind racing as she caught sight of a familiar face amongst the crowd of mostly strangers in the mess hall of the Ghost’s training facility.

Yet, it was the ponytail with the left side shaved back that triggered a flood of memories in Meghan’s head; most of them pleasant but a few not-so-pleasant either.

_ ‘Goddamn it Meg! You don’t fucking listen do you?!’ _

_ ‘Do you?! You don’t have to live like you’ve got something to prove every second of every day, Kim!’ _

_ ‘Oh, that’s fucking rich!’ _

Meghan shook her head to clear the memory from her mind as she stood up abruptly from the table, catching the attention of her fellow RAINBOW team members.

“You okay?” Eliza asked, frowning in mild worry and concern.

“Yeah, uh…” Meghan replied, a little flustered, “Just gotta take care of _ something, _ you know?”

The eyes of the women present at the table all softened in understanding, and Meghan had to breathe a sigh of relief when she saw they had all bought her excuse. “Back in a few minutes.”

She left the table and quickly followed through the door that Kim had taken a minute prior. Thankfully she hadn’t disappeared out of sight completely, Meghan able to spot her walking down the hallway to what Meghan had heard was the on-base barracks for the Ghosts who were ‘unattached’.

Kim turned a corner, out of Meghan’s sight for less than a minute, and when she rounded that same corner the hallway was empty. Frowning, Meghan continued down the hall, looking to see where Kim could have disappeared to.

When a set of strong legs dropped down from above and wrapped themselves around Meghan’s neck, the SEAL knew she had neglected to check _ above _ her line of sight as well as around her.

The paie crashed to the floor, Kim rolling over to force Meghan onto her front, and reached back to control Meghan’s arms, “Who the hell do you think you’re… Castellano?!”

“Good to… see you’re… still willing to… go down on… me,” Meghan struggled to mutter out, Kim’s full weight on her back restricting her ability to breathe properly.

Kim scrambled to get off of Meghan, and offered her hand to help her back to her feet, “You of all people should know better than to sneak up on me.”

Rubbing the back of her neck and stretching her back, Meghan shrugged, “Someone has to keep you on your toes…”

The pair shared an uncomfortable silence as they struggled to look each other in the eyes, “So… you’re a Ghost now, huh? Never thought I’d see you trade the trident for something else. Last I heard, you were gunning for Gold Squadron.”

“Funny how things turn out,” Kim stated with a dry chuckle, “I was actually halfway through a tour with Red Squadron when I was tapped on the shoulder to join these guys. I don’t regret it for one second; it’s definitely a change of pace.” She looked up and down Meghan with a curious expression, “What drags you to Bragg? You still part of that international counter terrorism group?”

Meghan nodded, “Yeah, RAINBOW. We’re growing faster and faster, and I have a feeling that we’re going to expand our operational reach in the near future.”

Kim crossed her arms over her chest, “Is that so?”

“You know me Kim, I’m an intel spook down to the bone. When blood spills in the water, I instantly smell it.”

“Still doesn’t really answer my question though.”

Meghan picked up on the slightly hostile tone in Kim’s voice, “Training rotation with the Ghosts; advanced jungle warfare and the like.”

Kim quirked an eyebrow, “Don’t you have that shit on lockdown though?”

Meghan chuckled, “I’m merely a chaperone, along with Jensen, as well as our chief medic, and one of our bosses: a SAS warrant officer. The four of us are babysitting twelve others from strictly law enforcement backgrounds, barring Ela. Polish GROM,” she clarified at Kim’s confused look.

“Fair enough… it’s good to see that you’re doing well, Meghan.”

Meghan had to fight to mask the wince from the ‘well this conversation is ending’ tone in Kim’s voice, “Likewise, Kim. Hey… if you’re free…”

“We’ll see, Meg. I’ll see you around.” Kim said with a half smile, continuing down the hallway and out of sight as Meghan stood there with her head hung low and frown forming on her face. She watched and waited until the corridor was clear before she shook her head, disappointed with how things went down, and began her trek back to the mess hall.

* * *

_Many years ago…_  
Naval Amphibious Base Coronado, California  


“I’m not going to lie, Kimmy, I’m a little concerned,” Meghan said as she set down the printed letter down on the table in front of her, turning her head to look over her shoulder at her friend, “I mean, you and I only just made it through BUD/S and SQT by the skin of our teeth, and now you’re chasing DEVGRU?”

Kim paused from where she stood at the kitchenette counter of her small room within the barracks, “What, you think I can’t make it to the big leagues?”

“No, but-”

Kim laughed, though it was the sort of laugh made when someone didn’t quite believe what they were hearing, “Jesus fuck, I would’ve thought that you of all people would’ve been the last to doubt me.”

Meghan frowned, “Hey now, I never said that I doubted you specifically. You and I _ both _ know that Green Team is a challenge unto its own. Attrition during Green is higher than that of BUD/S and SQT combined, and the candidate pool is smaller.”

“Still sounds like you’re fucking doubting me, Megs,” Kim said bluntly, arms crossed over her chest and frown on her face.

“We’ve been SEALs for what, four years now? There are ten year SEAL _ veterans _ that don’t make it past the _ screening phase _. And yeah, while the military at large has been more and more accepting of us and women in combat roles at large, I’d bet hard money that DEVGRU is still a ‘boys only club’.”

Kim scoffed, “You and I were part of the first four female SEALs that made it through our intake, of the original twelve that started with us. It only seems right that we keep pushing the envelope and go as far as we can go.”

“At what cost, Kim?” Meghan stood up and turned to face Kim fully, “What about the risks?”

“We’re fucking _ Navy SEALs _,” Kim said, stepping over to close the distance with her partner, “Our entire jobs are one huge risk! What’s one more?”

“I just think that you’re in a hurry to accomplish things too fast. We’re still relatively new as far as SEALs go, and already you’re pushing for DEVGRU. We only just came back from our second deployment!”

“And? I don’t see a problem with that,” Kim stated, “If anything, being fresh from the field gives us an advantage. We’re still in that raw warrior mindset that Green Team dictates.”

Meghan rolled her eyes, “You need to _ think _ fast as well if you want to succeed, Kim. Charging into something like this isn’t going to benefit you.”

“And hanging back and waiting for too long will just get you left behind.” Kim turned around and started back towards the door to her bedroom.

“What’s the rush to get in anyway? Operational tempo is slowing down!” Meghan stated loudly. “It’s not like they’re in a hurry to take in new SEALs anyway!”

Kim turned back around and stormed right up to her partner. “God dammit Meg! You just don’t fucking listen do you?!”

“Do you?!” Meghan shouted back, “You don’t have to live like you’ve got something to prove every second of every day, Kim!”

“Oh, that’s fucking rich!” Kim scoffed, glancing down to Meghan’s tattooed arms, then back up to her eyes. Meghan took note of this, and her frown turned into a lethal glare.

“And _ what _ is that supposed to mean…”

“It makes fucking sense, now that I think about it… trust the recovered cripple to be hesitant on taking risks…”

“Kim…”

“No, fuck that. In fact, fuck _ you _ . I’m not going to let your own personal worries and concerns affect _ my _ future and career,” Kim stated firmly, noting the hurt look in Meghan’s eyes.

It disappeared a moment later, “Fine…” Meghan replied after a moment of tense silence. “If that’s what you want, then fine… I won’t hold you back, if that’s how you feel. We’re done.” Meghan turned around and started walking towards the doorway of Kim’s dorm.

“Not like there was an ‘us’ in the first place,” Kim said plainly, “I mean, you’re an officer, I’m enlisted… never meant to happen in the first place.”

“Goodbye, Hernandez.”

“Fuck you, Castellano.”


	2. Chapter 2

_ “... My heart speeding as the pendulum stops It’s like I’m trapped inside an hourglass with minutes to drop; My minds extremely altered and lately my vision so corrupt - DEAD! Haha, get it? I’m seeing infrared…” _

The small Bluetooth speaker continued to blast the hip hop bars as Kim laid into the punching bag with an intensity usually reserved for unfortunate enemy soldiers. The heavy bag was her usual place to vent any built up frustrations, and currently she was unloading into it something fierce.

To think her day had been going so well up until lunch time, too. She’d woken up in a fairly good mood, had managed to beat both Dom and John to the mess and get a decent breakfast before the pair could pillage the good stuff, and was able to beat her personal best for both a circuit run and on the ‘three gun’ shooting course they had set up as a de facto training method.

_ ‘Then fucking  _ Castellano _ had to walk right back into my life…’ _ Kim’s inner voice said as she delivered a particularly hard set of blows into the bag, making it swing rather violently from its mount in the gym’s ceiling.

“You know, we only just replaced the last bag you demolished,” a voice called from the side. Kim finished up the last couple of strikes of her set then turned to face the speaker.

“What, are you volunteering as a stand-in, because you’re more than welcome to be my guest,” she shot back to John Kozak, smiling in a threatening way.

“Easy there,” David Zhang said, stepping up behind Kozak and resting a hand on his shoulder, “There’s a reason she’s got the name ‘Fury’.”

Kozak rolled his eyes, shaking David’s hand off of him, “No harm in a little sparring, right Kimbo?”

Kim’s eyes narrowed at the nickname, and she strode over towards the sparring mat and retrieved an extra set of gloves and a headguard, before storming over to the young Ghost and forcibly shoving the equipment into his arms, “It’ll be a two-hit fight: I’ll hit you, you hit the ground.”

“Only if you actually hit me,” Kozak teased as he secured the guard around his face. Off to the side, David shook his head and started over to where Ben was standing, the gym’s medic bag by his legs and preemptively opened up.

“That cockiness is going to get you killed one day,” Kim shot back as she stepped onto the sparring mat. Kozak was right behind her, tightening up his gloves.

“I could say the same about your- woah!” Kozak jumped back in shock as Kim struck out without warning, her fist only barely missing his face. “Fuck, Hernandez! A little warning- hey!”

Kim smirked as she backed off after her second swing, “Warning is for exhibition fighting, you don’t get any warning out on the field.” She closed the distance once more and lashed out with a series of quick jabs to Kozak’s face and chest, most fended off by the man’s surprisingly effective guard but a few blows still making contact.

Kozak took a second to create some distance between them, arms up in guard as he looked her over, then pressed the attack. He threw a left jab towards her face, but then rotated left and attempted a swinging kick aimed at Kim’s left side.

Unfortunately for him, he’d telegraphed the movement, so Kim closed the remaining distance as Kozak’s right leg left the ground, ducked down, and used the elevated leg as leverage as she practically picked the younger man up and threw him solidly onto his back a few feet away from where she stood, winding him and leaving him gasping to catch his breath.

“A little rough today, Hernandez?” An authoritative voice called from the side of the ring, and Kim looked over to see Major Anthony Perryman standing there with his arms folded over his chest and a bemused smile on his face. “Kozak! You alright?”

“Never better, sir,” he grunted as he slowly picked himself up off the ground.

“Get yourself checked out. Mat or not, that sounded like a particularly hard landing.” Tony fixed his attention back towards him, and his expression shifted to one of mild disappointment, “Kim. I thought we’d spoken about this before…”

Kim shut her eyes as she recognised the tone in his voice, a tone she could only assume he’d use on his own child whenever they’d misbehaved or done something along those lines. “Sir, with all due respect, Kozak volunteered and agreed to that level of combat… not my fault he got his ass handed to him.”

There was a flash of amusement in Tony’s eyes, before it was replaced by that frustratingly neutral stare that he’d mastered, “Be that as it may, I’d appreciate it if you could at least keep it to the point where your opponents don’t need to visit the infirmary. Save that for the battlefield.”

“Wilco, sir.”

“If you’re still eager to scratch that itch, however, I need a couple of extra bodies for an exercise I’m putting our house guests through,” Tony said, looking at the doorway that Kozak had exited through followed by Ben, “I was going to tap Kozak for it, but you can take his place.”

Kim sighed softly, “Understood… anything that I need to know?”

“Wear your regular field wear, and then go meet up with Coray and the others in Briefing Two. I’ll be there in twenty to brief you before I inform Baker and his group on their mission.”

* * *

It didn’t take long for Kim to change into a fresh set of clothes, opting for a navy blue t-shirt and a pair of ATACS FG-X patterned combat pants with her black chest rig and load-bearing equipment, and meet her fellow Ghosts at the designated room. The usual suspects were there already: Coray, Dom, and Rubio: three of the four Ghosts who’d had the privilege of dismantling one of South America’s largest drug cartels and bringing back its ringleader in a set of cuffs and an opaque black cotton bag over his mask.

“Hey boys,” Kim greeted as she took a seat across from Dominic, flashing him a smirk that he quickly returned.

“Who’d you knock out to get sent here?” Coray asked with a knowing smile.

“Kozak. Smartass caught me in a bad mood, and Tony caught me planting him into the mats. Sent me here as punishment,” she looked between the three men and shrugged, “though if this is his idea of punishment, then I might have to beat up on him more often.”

Rubio shook his head while Dom chuckled, “And you wonder why you’re called ‘Fury’.” Kim rolled her eyes at the man and flipped him off in response.

Tony took that as his cue to walk in, with a stern-looking man following right behind him. “I take it that we’re all here?”

“Still waiting on David, but he should be here any second.” Rubio responded just as the man in question rushed into the room.

“Sorry guys, got held up by Ferg at the range,” David “Vasily” Zhang said as he took a spare seat beside Kim, “So, what’s up?”

Tony shook his head before standing at the end of the table, “Most of you already know this, but for those who don’t, we’re hosting a group of operators from RAINBOW for a series of training exercises. We’ve run them through a few different courses to get them outside of their usual urban warfare mindset, but it’s time to turn up the difficulty.”

He spread out a series of maps, “Starting this evening, we’re gonna run a twenty-four hour force-on-force combat exercise-”

“Capture?” David interrupted with an excited smirk on his face, referring to a common rule set that the Ghosts typically adopted for their stealth-focused training events.

“Yes, Dave, it’s Capture… though we’re only playing the defense. We’ll be playing as hostage takers and holding one of RAINBOW’s people as a live hostage as incentive. This will be a simunition exercise, so facemasks are mandatory at all times unless you’re in a designated safe area.”

“Are we playing by OPFOR rules or Ghost rules?” Dom asked, looking up from the map.

“Blend of both, as we want to give them a little chance of success.”

“Six of us against what, twelve of them? Doesn’t seem very fair,” Kim stated, sharing a look with the others gathered, “to them, at least.”

The others chuckled at the remark, “Don’t try to kick their ass too hard, alright? This is a learning experience for them. Plus this is a mission set that they explicitly train for… just in an environment that they don’t train for.” Tony gathered the maps from the other Ghosts and handed out an equipment listing. “This is the list of toys you’ll need, ex starts in three hours time. I’ll be checking in with RAINBOW after we’re done here, giving them the brief.”

“Who’s our hostage?” Kim asked, and both Tony and the other man that had entered with him shared a look. She didn’t know his name, but she knew that he was one of RAINBOW’s more senior specialists… at least, in age and experience.

“You’ll meet them out on the field.”

The other Ghosts shared a displeased groan at that twist. “Nose goes,” Dom called out loudly, raising his finger to touch his nose. The other Ghosts in the room rapidly followed suit, Kim unfortunately coming in last. “We’ve got our babysitter!”

“Go sit on a Beretta, Moretta,” Kim shot back with a barely restrained smile, flipping the man off.

“How long have you been saving that one?”

“Don’t look at me, it was your mom that suggested it!”

Tony shook his head at his Ghost’s antics, welcoming the distraction from his own thoughts as they drifted towards his turbulent home life. “Well, if there’s no other questions?” He paused and waited for someone to speak up, nodding once it appeared that there weren’t any questions to be asked. “Good, start getting your gear together.”

* * *

“Remind me why  _ I’m _ playing hostage?” Meghan said as she, Mike, and Tony made their way through the thick brush towards the encampment that she and her Ghost ‘captors’ would be held up at.

“Because this is a training exercise for the others,” Mike reiterated, doing his best not to show his internal frustration towards the SEAL officer. For an intelligence officer that’s part of a prestigious unit, she was beginning to sound like a petulant teenager who’d been told she couldn’t borrow the car. “This would be too easy for you.”

“Plus I had another task for you in mind, one I wanted to brief you on in private,” Tony added, stopping and turning around to face her. “Do your best to hinder their defensive operations, and even potentially escape.”

The scowl that was seemingly etched on Meghan’s face seemed to soften as she let the instruction sink in. After her first tour as a SEAL, she’d been asked to be an assistant instructor for the next incoming class of SEALs that were scheduled to go through SERE. And while she had done fairly well going through literal torture, it was something else to be the one inflicting it. 

Admittedly, some of the other instructors for that particular phase had raised their skepticisms of having a  _ female _ instructor on the course, but she’d played to her strengths and let the candidates slip into a false sense of security upon seeing her. She’d had to dance with the lines of ethics and morals a few times with some of the acts she’d undertaken, especially when she played the part of the ‘captured female sailor’ that was in the cells before the first batch of candidates arrived and was threatened with much more vile acts of violence that were intended to break the morale of the candidates held with her.

_ ‘You won’t talk? Alright, grab the blonde bitch. I’m sure we’ll manage to fuck some more info out of her after she stops screaming.’ _

“I make no promises if I ‘accidently’ break a few noses.” Meghan responded with an only-slightly cocky smile.

Tony had to bite back a laugh. From his limited observations of the specialist Valkyrie would’ve been a perfect fit as a Ghost, had she not been poached by RAINBOW. Already, he was considering writing to the current commander of the unit to enquire when the SEAL’s tenure with RAINBOW would expire so he could ‘coincidentally’ offer her a place within Ghost Recon.

“I feel obligated to remind you that this  _ is _ a training exercise,” Tony said after a moment, “so maybe limit it to some bruising.”

“I’ll go for their pride instead, sound fair?” Meghan offered instead with a cheeky smirk.

Before long, the trio arrived at the encampment; a series of tents and camouflage nets raised in amongst the trees and brush to resemble a covert staging campsite. The six Ghosts playing the roles of the opposing force were gathered underneath an open-air tent, all seated and resting against backpacks as makeshift seating. Her stomach stirred in unease as she recognised Kim amongst the group, the feeling apparently mutual as the SEAL-turned-Ghost seemed to mirror Meghan’s expression.

“Evening people,” Tony’s booming voice caught everyone’s attention, and Valkyrie was thankful for the distraction, “We’ve brought your hostage for the operation. Some of you may have met before, but for those unfamiliar, this is Valkyrie. US Navy SEALs intelligence officer and assaulter that’s part of the RAINBOW detachment here. Now, as I hope you have come to realise in the last few seconds, since your hostage is one of their own, they’ll likely be coming after you with everything they have and then some. I trust you have the plan all worked out?”

“All set; we’re ready to go bossman,” Dom said, looking around at the five other Ghosts by his sides.

“Good to hear,” Tony turned to look at Meghan, “You’re all theirs, Castellano. Have fun.”

“I’ll try, sir.”

* * *

Meghan didn’t know what was worse: being tied up in a folding camping chair with a thin hood over her head, or the fact that her and Kim hadn’t shared a decent word between each other beyond Kim’s instructions to ‘sit down, put your arms and hands behind the back of the seat, and ankles against the chair legs’. Occasionally she’d break the awkward silence to check and make sure the bindings weren’t cutting off circulation, but then the silence would creep back in and be almost deafening.

“You know the hood is redundant, right?” Valkyrie said after what had to have been a couple of hours at this point. “I mean, we walked in here with me well aware of how to get in and out.”

“...it’s for the immersion.” Kim responded after a few moments of tense silence, sounding a little frustrated by the statement. “You should know that we don’t do anything by halves here.”

“The least you guys could’ve done was at least get something that doesn’t itch as badly as this thing.”

“But what fun is that? It’s all part of the experience.” Meghan could hear the faint trace of a smile in Kim’s voice, and she pressed on.

“Guess you’ll be getting the  _ full _ experience as a result, complete with customary bitching by the hostage,” Meghan finished with a quiet chuckle, falling silence as she heard the surprisingly quiet footfalls of Kim get closer and closer until they ended right behind her. The hood lifted off without warning, and Meghan blinked as the light flooded her eyes before they cleared up. She hung her head back to look up directly at Kim, who stood with her arms folded over her chest.

“Keep it up and I might just have to gag you, for immersion’s sake, of course.”

“Don’t threaten me with a good time, Kimmy.”

The pair of women froze as the nickname hung in the air, Meghan having said that completely on reflex and without any thought. Kim seemed to snap out of the trance first and she was quick to re-cover Meghan’s head with the hood before hurrying off to go back to one of her staging points not too far away, a flash of pleasant and not-so-pleasant memories playing through the back of her head.

In her haste, she neglected to check how the hood hadn’t properly settled on Meghan’s head, nor did she think to quickly have another look at her before she went out of sight.

Meghan  _ had _ noticed this, and with a few swift movements, the hood fell to the ground behind her, and she was able to take stock of the kind of knots that Kim had used to secure her to the chair.

_ ‘Well well well… guess all that time spent on leave is going to have a practical application after all…’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Song at the start is “Wolf Creek” by Unaverage Gang


End file.
